Area developers are coming out in opposition to Town of Newmarket plans to front-end the development process due to new government legislation.
The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) wrote to Newmarket regarding its overhaul of the local development process. With provincial government legislation, Bill 109, demanding municipalities speed up approvals or be forced to refund application fees, Newmarket’s new process aims to have more back-and-forth with developers before an application is formally submitted and the clock starts ticking on an application refund.
But the letter from BILD policy and advocacy planner Sophie Lin argues that this essentially goes against the provincial legislation's goal of speeding up development.
“BILD is of the opinion that any approach where the substantive issues of a development proposal are to be resolved prior to the formal submission is not in keeping with the spirit and intent of the legislation,” the letter said. “By front-loading the development application process, this means that an applicant must ensure their application is complete prior to the start of the ‘clock’ of the legislated timelines.”
The letter urged council to go against staff recommendations and ask them to explore a “valid” process for development under the new legislation. But council voted June 26 to stay the course and proceed with staff’s new application process, only accepting the letter for information without commenting.
Bill 109 will require municipalities to decide on zoning bylaw changes within 90 days of submission and site plan applications within 60 days, or else provide a 50 per cent refund of application fees that escalates to 75 per cent and then 100 per cent if delays are long enough. The refund policy will go into effect July 1.
Municipalities have expressed concern that the legislation could have for the amount of public consultation in planning.
“Bill 109 has created a new frontier for processing development applications. It is not possible to meet the prescribed timelines without significantly sacrificing the standards that the Town has established,” the staff report said. “These standards have been created to protect people and property.”
Council endorsed a series of staff recommendations including delegating minor zoning bylaw changes to staff, fostering a “yes” attitude with applicants and streamlining submission types. The town also intends to implement a region-made process that will take to six to 12 weeks of consultation with an applicant before formal submission, though the region indicates that is aspirational.
“BILD appreciates that the Town has identified opportunities for internal improvements that will help meet the legislated timelines and that these areas of improvement are being recommended for implementation,” the BILD letter said.
Still, BILD said adding to the planning process before application submission is still wrong.
“It is BILD’s opinion that any policies or procedures that aim to circumvent or delay the start of the timeline should be avoided as a matter of law,” the organization said.
